Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards: And the winners are...

Datacom, Provoke and Spark Digital were among the big winners at last night's 10th annual Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards which saw partners praised for their contribution to accelerating digital transformation in New Zealand.

Twenty-two awards were presented, with Microsoft New Zealand's newly appointed director for small, midmarket solutions and partner group, Phil Goldie, noting the winners were high calibre technology companies who had demonstrated proactive and innovative forward-thinking to help Microsoft deliver on its mission of empowering people and organisations to adapt to digital transformation.

Datacom took out two of the five new or rescoped awards on offer this year, scooping up the Enterprise Mobility Solutions and Internet of Things awards, while Datacom's James David took out the individual award for Partner Seller.

Also taking out an individual award was Provoke's Nick Westbrook, who took home the Solution Sales Specialist award, with Provoke also winning the Cloud Platform award.

Double awards too, for Spark Digital, which took out the Communications and Licensing categories.

Meanwhile, it was double the winners for the Public Sector – Education category, with both PCMedia and New Era IT winning.

Intergen continued its winning run to claim the Modern Marketing award. The company has now won awards at nine of the 10 Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards.

Inde Technology was named Rising Star.

Lucidity laid claim to one of the remaining new awards, winning the Managed Service category, which replaces the previous data center and hosting categories, while Information Leadership claimed the Public Sector, Government award.

The new categories reflect the changing technology arena and new areas of growth for Microsoft and its partners.

Ingram Micro took out the final new category, claiming the Market Development award, which replaces the distribution award of previous years in recognition that it is no longer just distributors working through a channel model, with partners 'of all kinds' are having their businesses scaled by partnership and employing their own partner programs.

Goldie says Microsoft's partner channel continues to demonstrate a high level of commitment, creativity and knowledge which is 'hugely' beneficial to New Zealand's IT sector as a whole.

"Whether it's addressing the day-to-day needs of customers with tailored hardware solutions or providing high level IT advice, partners play a critical role in our industry and ensuring businesses are able to operate at the cutting edge," Goldie says.

The full list of winners is:

Cloud CRM: Magnetism

Cloud Productivity: Kinetics

Communications: Spark Digital

ERP: Theta

Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions: IT Engine

Cloud Platform: Provoke

Enterprise Mobility Solutions: Datacom

Managed Service: Lucidity

Windows and Devices Deployment: Fujitsu

Cloud Packaged Solution: Crossware

Data Platform and Analytics: UXC Eclipse

Internet of Things: Datacom

Learning: Ripped Orange

Licensing: Spark Digital

Market Development: Ingram Micro

Modern Marketing: Intergen

Partner Seller: James David, Datacom

Rising Star: Inde Technology

Solution Sales Specialist: Nick Westbrook, Provoke

Public Sector - Education: PC Media

Public Sector – Education: New Era IT

Public Sector – Government: Information Leadership

Technology for Good: Stellar Consulting

Check out our photo gallery of the awards for all the glitz, glamour - and kilts!